Corporate sector sees big ticket deals in 2013

If Narayana Murthy made a comeback to revive the sagging fortunes of Infosys, neo rich Jignesh Shah found himself in the cross hairs of brewing Rs 5,600 crore payment fiasco at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL). Reuters

As 2013 slips into history, alleged deeds and misdemeanours pushed corporate honchos into the limelight.

If Narayana Murthy made a comeback to revive the sagging fortunes of Infosys, neo rich Jignesh Shah found himself in the cross hairs of brewing Rs 5,600 crore payment fiasco at the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL).

Heads of regulatory and investigative agencies -- Raghuram Rajan and Ranjit Sinha -- to name a few, symbolised the no-nonsense approach towards pressing work on their plates.

If the former is key to chiselling monetary policies for sustainable economic growth as the RBI governor, the latter is leading CBI fearlessly in cases such as coal allocation scam that have significant political ramifications.

Modi, BJP's prime ministerial candidate, is seen as a business-friendly person while Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's words and actions too are being closely watched by the corporate community amid persisting economic sluggishness.

Moving away from political and business links, a few big ticket deals in the highly competitive aviation space too put the limelight on certain business leaders.

In a culmination of a long-nursed dream, Tata group chairman emeritus Ratan Tata and his successor Cyrus Mistry saw the conglomerate clinching joint ventures with Singapore Airlines and AirAsia.

Again the founder of AirAsia, the Malaysian budget carrier, Tony Fernandes made headlines with his dexterous move to enter the Indian market.

Staying with aviation, Naresh Goyal seems to be tackling tough times with his Jet Airways' Rs 2,056 crore stake sale deal with Etihad still facing regulatory as well as legal hurdles.

Meanwhile, under the stewardship of Cyrus Mistry, Tatas has made many key decisions including group firm Indian Hotels Company abandoning the USD 1.86 billion bid to acquire Orient Express Hotels.

Never short of coming up with big bang plans, billionaire siblings -- Mukesh and Anil -- this year too had surprises up their sleeve.

The brothers, in June, announced a Rs 12,000 crore transaction that would see Mukesh utilising the towers owned by younger sibling Anil for launching his telecom venture.

On the other hand, ongoing issues related to gas production from KG-D6 fields kept Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries in the news.

Well known industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla came into focus after his name found its way in the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) related to coal allocation scam.

India-origin chief of Pepsico Indra Nooyi hogged headlines towards the end of this year with the beverages major unveiling plans to